


Raindrops on Roses

by BluePlanetTrash



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Character Death, Flowers, Funeral, Heavy Angst, Lance's Funeral, Langst, M/M, Rain, lance dies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-08
Updated: 2018-04-08
Packaged: 2019-04-20 01:05:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14249736
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BluePlanetTrash/pseuds/BluePlanetTrash
Summary: ok ok i have a prompt, so like the team goes on a mission to a kind of earth-like planet to get info or whatever, but the galra or a particularly aggressive alien group shows up and start shooting. lance gets shot and starts slowly dying and keith comes and tells him its gonna be fine (except it clearly isnt) and it just suddenly starts raining and lance is like "hey, its raining. i missed rain." and dies.





	Raindrops on Roses

It wasn’t supposed to end like this. It was never supposed to end at all. They were supposed to have years longer left. They were supposed to get home safely after saving the universe. That was their job, their destiny.

They weren’t even supposed to be on that planet, they were supposed to be on the other side of the galaxy but instead, they picked up on a distress signal.

Of course they expected Galra but instead, they were told that a rebel group on the planet was terrorizing their city, killing without mercy and they had taken some of their people captive as well. They had split up, Hunk, Shiro, and Pidge to find the captives and return them to the city unharmed while Keith and Lance tracked down the group. Since they had already taken out most of them when they rescued the hostages, they thought that it would be an easy win.

They were wrong.

* * *

Keith went into battle, sword swinging taking out the rebels in droves, trusting Lance to have his back. They shouted to one another perfectly in sync until they were left panting and trying to catch their breath. They smiled across the battlefield at each other but before Keith could yell out to Lance, a rebel raised their gun and fired with their last breath.

He yelled out in horror as Lance fell to the ground, trying and failing to press down on his wound. He was hit in the stomach and already, he could see the fabric darkening slowly around Lance’s hand.

“LANCE!” He screamed, sprinting towards him. He slid on his knees to kneel beside Lance, frantically looking him over. He replaced Lance’s hand with his own, pressing down firmly, although he could feel it soaking through his glove. He gasped slightly in pain, his jaw clenching up momentarily before relaxing. As carefully as he could, Keith scooped Lance up, cradling him against his chest.

“Guys, we need an evac immediately, Lance is down,” he spoke urgently into his coms. With a wheeze, Lance shakily lifted his arms and pulled off his helmet, letting it tumble to the side after slipping it off.

“It’s going to be okay Lance, help is on the way,” he said firmly, making sure to focus on Lance’s eyes.

“I’m not going to make it Keith,” he replied quietly with a rasp. Keith’s eyes widened in surprise and he flinched back slightly at the resignation in his voice. Suddenly, he started coughing and Keith could only hold him tightly, trying to stop him from jostling his wounds any further. With a weak retch, a splatter of blood fell over his chest armour.

“No, don’t think like that, we’re gonna get you back and you’re going to go into a pod and everything’s going to be okay,” he argued desperately. Lance gave him a weak smile and shook his head slowly.

“Sorry, not this time mullet,” he chuckled. His smile turned into a quivering frown and he looked up at Keith with tearful eyes. “Can you something for me? I have a box of letters to everyone in my room, make sure they get to the right people,”

“Give them away yourself,” Keith grumbled, focusing on applying more pressure. Lance let out a weak snicker before it fell flat and he let out a quiet whine.

“I thought that I’d be more prepared for this, but…I don’t want to die,” he sniffled. He leaned against Keith’s chest as a quiet sob snuck its way out of his throat.

“You’re not going to die, you’re going to be okay,” Keith argued weakly. Despite his prayers that Lance would be fine, he could the life slowly draining away from him. The blood hadn’t stopped spreading since he was hit, and he could see his skin paling just in those few minutes that they sat there.

“I want to go home,” he whimpered as if he hadn’t heard Keith at all. Keith swallowed the sudden lump in his throat and hunched over Lance protectively.

“We’re all going to get home, together. After you get out of the healing pod, we’ll make Allura take us on a visit to Earth,” he promised desperately. Lance’s lips quirked up slightly at the words, almost looking grateful.

“Okay,” he breathed out slowly. He stared up at the cloudy sky, he hadn’t noticed how similar this planet was too Earth, but the more he looked, the more it reminded him of the planet he missed so dearly. He smiled broadly up at the sky, startling Keith a bit.

With a short rumble, the clouds parted and they were being sprinkled on. Lance let out a short laugh, one hand reaching up towards the sky. What started out as a light drizzle, gradually grew to a full-on shower.

“Keith, look, it’s rain. I missed rain so much,” he said happily. He stared up at the sky a wide smile on his face. The water pelted against their bodies, Keith attempting to cover him but Lance only let out a cheerful laugh. Something much louder and energized since he went down. He let out a sigh and stared vacantly up at the sky.

“Take care of them for me,” his requested, locking eyes with Keith. He clenched his jaw, stubbornly shaking his head. He was grateful that the rain was hiding the tears that were rolling down his cheeks, but it didn’t hide the weak trembling of his voice.

“I can’t Lance. I can’t. I’m not you, I could never replace you,” he pleaded. He let out a muffled sob when Lance reached up to cup his cheek, slowly rubbing this thumb back and forth along his cheekbone.

“Not replace. None of us can be replaced, we’re all special,” he comforted softly. Keith sniffed and moved his hand to lay on Lance’s.

“I can’t take care of them, Lance, I can barely take care of myself,” he argued weakly, trying anything against the boy.

“It’s never too late to learn Keith,”

“That’s not the point! We’ll fall apart without you! You keep all of us together!” He yelled all the anger, all of the frustration and confusion exploded out of him, leaving only the anguish behind. A miserable whine made it’s way out of his throat and he weakly curled over Lance further.

“It’s okay Keith,” Lance said with a smile, nodding his head reassuringly. “It’s all gonna be okay, I promise you,”

“Don’t say that,” he pleaded with a gasp. Lance shook his head, lightly carding his fingers through Keith’s soaked hair.

“Nope, what do I do with my promises?” Keith sniffed, at the question, lips trembling against the words that came out of his mouth.

“You keep them,”

“Yup, so everything is gonna be okay,” he said softly. Keith curled Lance closer to his chest as he saw his features start to go slack. His whole face trembled with the effort to give Keith one last smile and final request.

“Tell everyone I love them,”

His head rolled limply over Keith’s arm, his eyes cloudy and last breath expelled. It was almost like he had just passed out and it took a second for Keith to fully process what had just happened. Gently he shook Lance’s body as if trying to rouse him from sleep, his hand still desperately clutching Lance’s to his cheek.

“Lance?” He tried weakly, his heart pounding rapidly in his chest. With shaking hands, he hugged Lance close to his chest, tucking his head underneath his chin. His trembling fingers combed through Lance’s hair, just as he had done moments before.

He rapidly dissolved into tears, curling over Lance, heaving sobs retching from his lungs. There was nothing in his thoughts, only waves of sorrow, distress, and so much hopelessness. Without hesitation, he leaned his head back and screamed up at the sky, a long guttural scream filled with nothing but pure anguish. He screamed over and over again until his voice cracked and he couldn’t bring himself to make another sound.

Why had they taken him? Why did it have to be Lance? The questions raced through his head.

_Why do the best people die young?_

* * *

The ballroom of the Castle was strewn with memories of Lance. Posters of him smirking at the cameras, some of him in the middle of battle perfectly aiming at the enemy, some the team had captured over the years. Whatever they could find to put up, they did. A hologram of him valiantly standing guard greet the visitors at the entrance of the Castle, as if he was watching over each of them protectively.

They had flown back to Arus for his funeral, where everything all began. Mourners came from every inch of the universe, desperate to show their respect and gratitude to Lance. Even in the large expanse of the room, it was nearly silent, only hushed whispers passed through the crowd.

Keith looked over at Hunk as he burst into tears again and started being lead away by an equally as teary Pidge. Shiro, Allura, and Coran talked quietly with some of the other planet leaders, accepting their sympathies. Leaving himself to wander around the hall himself, to take in some of the pictures of Lance that he had never seen before.

As he walked down the wall, more and more of Lance’s family showed up in the pictures, old school pictures of a more awkward Lance with curly hair and bits of acne. There were even prints of him from the Garrison, laughing at something that Hunk had said. Or giving Pidge a noogie, while she tried and failed to get away.

He stopped at the enlarged picture of Lance after his Garrison recruitment training. He had his full uniform on, hair slicked back and beret on. His stood strong with a salute, eyes shining with determination even if his face was stoic. Keith straightened up, giving the picture a matching salute. He was so young in the picture, almost painfully young. His head was probably filled with dreams of being a pilot. He had no idea that he would be in space in a few short years. Or that he wouldn’t ever get back to Earth.

He shook his head free of the thought. It wasn’t the time. His eyes travelled around the room, taking everything in with a sigh. He breathed out and let his feet take him to the far end of the room.

And there he was, lying peacefully in the middle of everything. He was surrounded by flowers from the Castle’s gardens and flowers brought from every visiting planet. A white coffin held his body, he was dressed in the paladin’s formal attire, strikingly similar to Earth’s military formal attire, only the lining showed the colour of their lions. His face was cleaned of the blood and grime from the planet, and Allura shakily washed his hair and carefully applied some face makeup and blue-winged eyeliner on his lids.

They all knew that he would have loved it.

The colour perfectly matched the blue rose flower crown that Hunk had spent days working on and perfecting. He constantly had to set it aside as he started sobbing, desperate to not ruin it. Whenever one of them offered to take over, he refused, stating that he wanted to do it. He had to do it.

He looked down at the white roses that were filling his coffin. When Allura had taken them to the gardens to pick flowers for the service, they didn’t see anything that they recognized from Earth. Sure they were beautiful, but when they passed through to the back where everything was mostly overgrown; they saw hundreds of pure white roses. Nothing could compare to them.

They gave them to the visitors to carefully place in Lance’s coffin. It had filled up quickly almost reaching his chest. He had watched each of them line up to pay their respects, thank him tearfully, and wish him luck in the afterlife. He watched his teammates lay their coloured roses on top of the white ones. Nearly unable to get their final words out over their sobs.

Now it was his turn.

He had promised Lance that he was going to take care of their family. He couldn’t replace Lance; he was excitable, cheerful, sociable, and oh so caring. He couldn’t be what Lance was but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t take care of them.

**_Why do the best people die young?_ **

“I’m going to make you proud Lance,” he promised, his voice cracking as tears welled to the surface.

**_When you’re in a garden, which flower do you pick?_ **

He gently laid his crimson rose on Lance’s chest.

**_The most beautiful ones._ **

**Author's Note:**

> Come visit my tumblr at blueplanettrash!


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